Moore Cultural Center Kiosk

Problem Statement

Curators at the Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Cultural Center in Brevard County, Florida, wanted to blend technology into their main exhibit to increase the appeal to school children. They also needed an additional way to educate all visitors about the history of the Moore family, who became the first casualties in the Civil Rights Movement when their house was bombed on Christmas night in 1951.

The curators wanted the new technology to be used in the replica of the Moore’s house, which was built on the Cultural Center grounds. The house is not staffed on a daily basis, so the technology will also be used to complete the educational mission of the cultural center.

Approach

Our approach was to use a technology solution that would captivate and engage visitors by allowing them to ask questions and receive immediate information as well as stories related to the question topic. To keep their interest, we needed to allow the visitors a means to select only the questions they wanted to ask.

Solution

To accomplish this, we made Mr. Moore come alive! As a visitor, you enter his modest home as a guest and see the dining room table with place settings for six. At one of the place settings, there is a touch-screen kiosk, which is ready to help you begin a conversation with Mr. Moore. You can sit down as though to share a meal and choose your questions from an on-screen menu. Answers come from Mr. Moore himself, including interesting stories and facts about the Civil Rights Movement and the Moore family during that time period.

To help you feel the presence of these historical figures, the museum created custom mannequins for the display, showing Mr. Moore seated at the table and Mrs. Moore standing.

The kiosk currently contains 40 questions in six categories. So visitors can direct the conversation with Mr. Moore by choosing the categories and questions based on their interests. The answers, recorded by an actor, play through speakers strategically place “in” and “near” Mr. Moore to create a life-like experience.

Software updates and maintenance are performed remotely though a secure Internet connection.

After “bringing Mr. Moore to life,” the museum says they’ve seen more visitors, and those visitors are spending more time in the museum. In the future, the museum is considering adding Mrs. Moore to the conversation as well!